Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

"You! To think there was a method like this?!" 

His voice sputtered out as he clutched his chest, falling to his knee. As Di Yu's energy continued to flood the Revenant Lord's soul, the demon felt a pain in his chest. It was a dull pain but one that seemed to extend from his limbs to his mind. 

After all, this was his soul, slowly eaten away by Di Yu's energy, like a parasite eating at its host, getting stronger with each bite. 

"Don't even try to stop it. You'll only make the process worse." 

Di Yu muttered quietly while walking up to the Revenant Lord, looking at him with interest. 

"Yo- you human, do you think that I would be defeated this easily? Me? My clan suffered for this power!"

The demon then spun the dagger around, pointing it at his chest and pushing it down. It only reached a centimeter before Di Yu spoke out. 

"Bloom." 

Suddenly, the energy eating away at the Revenant Lord's soul stopped and burst out, destroying the demon from the inside. Azure light came through his eyes and mouth as the demon fell to the ground dead. All of the other demons he controlled died as well. 

"Heaven-sent power, what a joke. The method is different but the result is the same. You're not the only one to have been able to reanimate the dead", Di Yu scoffed before taking his attention elsewhere. 

Among the battle with the other Commanders, Commander Bi and his golems were still battling Shiji Wu and the Shiji Clan but this clan of demons could not contend with the power of the Defender's Flag. With each swing, this giant of a man took out several demons, smashing them to bits with the battle standard. 

And no matter how much they tried to destroy the golems, it would always come back. It was a battle of attrition that unfortunately, they could not win.

With Mu Jing and her clan against the Guardian Fang, Hu Baihe was hard pressed against them. After all, they were a clan that focused on illusions, and breaking out of them required strong willpower, something that she had. Against several of them, she wouldn't have much issue but she was against the whole clan. It was through a bit of luck and experience to have survived for that long. 

Fortunately for her, when the gates opened and the other human forces rushed out. Many of them came to her aid as she was the weakest out of the seven. 

Now the Mu Clan could only move carefully against this force. The same applied to the Huo and Ao Clan with whom their clan leaders were still in the thick of it with the other three Messengers of the High Council. 

Despite their special techniques as a pair, they were ultimately outnumbered. Furthermore, each of the messengers had very unique fighting styles, styles that they had never seen before. One used a chessboard, another used a pair of giant scissors, and the third used a small feathered fan. It didn't even have blades nor was it sharp, it was just simple peacock feathers. 

Despite these unusual weapons, all three of them were incredibly strong. Not as powerful as Di Yu but enough to put the pressure on Huo Shen and Ao Shuang. 

But Nie Xia and Shi Hou's was the most intense, clashing horns and shields with shockwaves that were strong enough to blast anyone close to them away. 

"Your forces are being pushed back and your subordinates are losing this fight. Do you intend to surrender and retreat?" 

Nie Xia shouted towards the demon as they slammed into each other once more! This time, they grabbed each other's hands, trying to force the other back. It was just Shi Hou's one arm against both of Nie Xia's.

And despite his words, Shi Hou responded firmly. 

"The battle has not ended and a clear victor has not been decided yet! I will not back down! Not when my lord's dream is so close!" the demon shouted. 

"Your lord is dead, is he not?! And yet you carry him with such respect?! Why? He is a warmonger?! Obsessed with strength! Has he done anything redeemable outside of killing and pillaging?!"

Nie Xia responded with even greater furor as he began to take one step after another, pushing the Roaring King back. His strength as a body cultivator was fully revealed as his muscles bulged out and each step dug into the ground. 

Despite wearing all of that armor, all of that weight on Shi Hou, the demon was still being pushed back. 

"No! Just because he is dead, does not mean that I do not carry on his will! Perhaps, he was not the greater leader but he is my lord! And I will not betray him!" he shouted and began to push back. 

The commander looked at him, unable to stop himself from chuckling. 

"If we were not enemies, we could've been friends. Your loyalty is commendable", he said. 

"Perhaps, but that could never happen, not when we've gone so far."

Shi Hou's grim tone had made it clear, there was no turning back. Nie Xia grimaced at those words, taking on a cold expression. 

"I had hoped that you would call it off but so be it." 

With that, he leaped up, grabbing the demon by the horns on his helmet. With his powerful grip, he crushed these solid metal piece as his fingers dug in. He pulled down, forcing the demon to the ground before knocking him up with his knee, forcing Shi Hou on his back. 

Stepping up to the demon, Nie Xia grabbed at his armor, ripping it out chunk by chunk. 

Shi Hou groaned from the impact. His eyes blinked several times as his vision was blurry. However, he saw Nie Xia's figure, watching as the human commander just tear his armor apart. 

Without hesitation, his fist came out knocking Nie Xia to the side as the demon stood back up. His think armor had holes in them now, sharp and contorted edges that could kill. But the Roaring King didn't care, he only lowered his head and readied himself for another charge. 

Nie Xia grinned, leaning forward and bending his knees. His arms were out and his hands were open, ready to meet the demon head-on. His shields were elsewhere, too heavy for anyone else but him to lift. 

They were both quiet, looking each other straight in the eyes. 

In this space, it was just the two of them. Nothing else seemed to matter, the fighting and screaming around them, the chaos that surrounded these two. They just focused on each other, building up their strength to strike. 

And just as they did, the moment right before they were about to move, they heard a thunderous crack in the air. It was loud, echoing across the continent, shaking the land down to its very core. 

For those that saw it, they stopped immediately to look and watch. And the others followed. 

The spirit's voice then echoed throughout the Cerulean Fortress, loud enough for everyone to hear. 

"It's coming." 

And as they all watched and became witnesses, all of them saw a pillar of black and white, rising up into the skies, piercing the Heavens. The mountain of the Hundun Clan collapsed under all of that power, crumbling into pieces and dust. It left nothing but a pillar that continued to fire off into the Heavens for a few more moments before stopping. 

This flash of light vanished leaving only a small dot as there was quite a bit of distance between it and the battle. 

But not for long. 

As if sensing something, Du Xiu readied his halberd before shouting to everyone else. 

"It has come! Prepare for battle! This is it! Life or death, we will destroy this thing!"